From JPD at TB:

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/2002...r/27/LNtop2.htm

Wednesday, November 27, 2002

Escapee gives information on Burns

Attorney refuses to say what Basham told police about missing MU student

By REBECCAH CANTLEY-FALK - The Herald-Dispatch

HUNTINGTON -- A suspect in the disappearance of 19-year-old Marshall University student Samantha Burns released information about her Tuesday to the FBI in Ashland, his attorney said.

L. Branden Basham, 21, authorized Robert Hughes to release the information Tuesday afternoon and requested that it be passed along to a trooper with the West Virginia State Police, Hughes said.

Hughes is Basham’s federally appointed defense attorney.

Hughes said he could not comment on what information Basham gave investigators, but said it was about Burns.

Burns has been missing since Nov. 11.

Investigators in West Virginia would not comment on whether Basham had given them information or on the ongoing investigation.

Basham and Chadrick E. Fulks, 25, escaped Nov. 4 from the Hopkins County (Ky.) Jail and are suspects in a multi-state crime spree. Basham is in the Boyd County Detention Center. Fulks is in custody in South Carolina.

The two also are suspected of abducting Alice Donovan, a S.C. woman missing since Nov. 14, and James Hawkins, a Hanson, Ky., man who was abducted Nov. 5 and tied to a tree near Evansville, Ind. He escaped after nearly 15 hours.

Basham has admitted to kidnapping Donovan, according to an affidavit presented Thursday in U.S. District Court in South Bend, Ind., during Fulks’ initial court appearance. Hughes said Basham’s release of information did not signify his involvement in Burns’ disappearance.

"It is not in any measure to be inferred as implicating him as either a primary or accessory," he said.

Troopers with the West Virginia State Police have interviewed Basham several times, Hughes said. Basham faces first- degree robbery, attempted murder and persistent felony charges in Kentucky. He is accused of having a shootout Nov. 17 with police following a failed carjacking in Ashland.

Hughes said Basham was very specific in his request that the information be passed to an FBI agent in Ashland and then to Trooper Scott Lawrence with the West Virginia State Police.

"(Lawrence) has spoken before with Mr. Basham, and I think they built a rapport," Hughes said. "Mr. Basham liked that particular trooper and trusted him."

Hughes said he could not confirm whether Lawrence had received the information, but said he would be surprised if he hadn’t received it.

Sgt. A.H. Arnold with the Huntington detachment of the West Virginia State Police and Joe Ciccarelli, the FBI’s senior resident agent in Charleston, would not comment about the information during a news conference Tuesday in Huntington.

"There have been some media reports regarding information, and we’re not in the position to comment," Ciccarelli said. "This is an ongoing investigation, and the premature release of information could compromise the prosecution on down the road if that’s where this goes."

Arnold said no new leads in the case had been confirmed.

"Obviously, if we get something concrete we can release, then we will release it," Arnold said. "The recent rumors that have come out about the attorney talking and all that, that’s nothing we can get into now."

Ciccarelli and Arnold said they would not comment on whether Basham and Fulks had even been interviewed or asked about Burns.

Also Tuesday, the FBI released a statement saying that a 16-year-old’s disappearance Nov. 12 from the Huntington Mall at Barboursville was not related to the Burns case. Sara Owens was reported missing after going to a job interview at the mall. She was located Nov. 15 in Richmond, Va.

After an investigation and consultation with other law enforcement agencies, the FBI determined that there were no federal criminal violations in connection with Owens’ disappearance, according to the release. Owens said she accepted a ride home from two men, who took her to Virginia.

She said she hid from the men in a bathroom at a mall in Virginia and borrowed a cell phone to call her father.

-- Anonymous, November 27, 2002

Answers

FULKS BACK IN SOUTH CAROLINA

This was the first of many court appearances that Chadrick Fulks will make here in South Carolina.

Fulks was brought to the McMillan Federal Building in Florence for an intitial court appearance on the federal complaints of carjacking and kidnapping.

Fulks was stoic.

He made little eye contact with those in the courtroom.

He answered all of the judge's questions with "yes sir" and "no sir." The U.S. Attorney trying the case advised the court that the maximum penalty for Fulks' alleged crimes would be either life in prison or death.

That penalty mostly depends on whether or not Alice Donovan was killed. Fulks did not have an attorney, so he was appointed a federal public defender.

He will also get a second attorney because he could face the death penalty.

We are told that Fulks will make another court appearance next Wednesday morning at the McMillan Federal Building.

For now, we are told he is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals at the Florence County Detention Center in Effingham.

As for Branden Basham, he remains in Kentucky, but should be brought to South Carolina soon.

Authorities in Brunswick County continued searching Tuesday for Alice Donovan, but have yet to find her.

Officials also say the number of people searching in Brunswick County has been scaled back.

Police say they will continue searching until all leads have dried up or they have exhausted all posibilities.

-- Anonymous, November 27, 2002

It's gonna be a sad Thanksgiving for PL's family. My heart goes out to them as this case drags on and on.

It's irritating that the two won't divulge where they put her and in what condition.

Maybe we should bring back torture methods of persuasion for moments like this?

-- Anonymous, November 27, 2002

This is no excuse, but I think I read on TB2K that both were on drugs.

Yes, I think extreme means should have been used on them immediately. If nothing else, it might have kept hundreds of people from wasting their time searching the wrong area. I don't buy that they don't at least have a vague idea of where they've been.

-- Anonymous, November 27, 2002

The two have been in Criminal University long enough to know that kidnapping doesn't carry the death penalty but a death from kidnapping does. I think Alice was dead when she was left in N/S Carolina. I would guess that the younger guy was told to stay in the car and the older guy (probably) shot her, some distance in the woods. I doubt Basham knew that Alice was going to be killed; he may not even have known she was killed until later if Fulks had a gun with a silencer--or if he killed her more quietly.

Occam's Razor--the simplest explanation is the most likely one: if Alice had been alive when they left her, they would have revealed her location.

I am not one hundred percent certain, of course, nobosy can be except for those invovled.

-- Anonymous, November 27, 2002

What troubles me is that they may have left her for dead but she might not have been. That is, if he shot her, she might not have died immediately. There may have been a 6 or 7 hour window where if she had been found, she might have survived, which goes back to the whole problem of getting this case of the ground in a timely fashion.

I still don't know what the point of killing her was . . . how did these guys go from theft to murdering? Did drugs play a factor? Did she see something so they killed her to keep her quiet? Or did they just not know what to do with her? There are just so many things that don't add up.

The only thing that half way makes sense to me at this point was that someone else had a larger plan -- maybe the guys were supposed to kidnap someone in particular or do something that fell through, so Fulks decided to commit crimes to raise money and get them vehicles. When that started to fall apart, he ran home . . .

I dunno. I'm sure we'll find out a lot more details in good time.

-- Anonymous, November 27, 2002